MP: Priest rapes woman on pretext of performing exorcism

A temple priest, who went to perform exorcism on a woman at the latter’s residence five days ago, allegedly raped her after sending away the husband somewhere else.

bhopalUpdated: Feb 13, 2015 02:37 IST

HT Correspondent Hindustan Times

Representative-Photo-Thinkstock

A temple priest in Madhya Pradesh, who went to perform exorcism on a woman at the latter’s residence around a week ago, allegedly raped her after sending away the husband somewhere else.

The incident occurred under Nishatpura police station area in state capital Bhopal on February 6. The matter was, however, reported to the police on Tuesday. The accused is absconding.

The woman (34) used to visit the Singarcholi temple daily for the past four years. About a month ago, temple priest Santosh Kumar Kaushik told her that she was possessed by an evil spirit and needed to perform a special puja (prayer) to exorcise herself. The priest told the woman he would perform the exorcism himself.

Accordingly, Kaushik went to the woman’s house to perform the puja and told her husband, an auto-rickshaw driver, to go out of the house.

In her complaint, the woman said she became unconscious while Kaushik was performing the puja. When she regained consciousness, she found herself naked and felt a pain in her private part.

The priest threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the incident to anyone.

The woman, however, narrated the incident to her husband when he came back. The couple later approached the police and lodged a complaint against Kaushik.

The police said a case had been registered against the priest on the basis of the woman’s complaint and efforts were on to nab the accused.